Delivery

11:00 p.m., north of the city, at an abandoned logistics warehouse.

Love gently rubbed her forehead.

Why is it a warehouse again? Why do these people always like using such easy-to-find places as hideouts?

She didn't understand, but saving herself the trouble was nice, too.

That's right. After spotting those two suspicious figures during the day, Love couldn't put her mind at ease, so she decided to come out and investigate personally that night.

Her figure landed silently on the warehouse roof, her skirt swaying gently in the night wind.

She had deliberately waited for a while after transforming today before heading out, so her mental state was excellent.

Heaven knew how badly she wanted to turn around and leave every time those embarrassing lines slipped out of her mouth after transforming.

Back to the matter at hand.

Love crouched down, pressed her fingertips against the cold metal roofing, closed her eyes, and slowly extended her Magic Power.

She found them.

She remembered those two wisps of malice from the café's second floor during the day perfectly.

For ordinary people, finding someone by "feel" was no different from searching for a needle in a haystack. But to her, malice was practically impossible to miss.

Not to mention, she still clearly remembered how it had felt during the day.

"Hello~ Delivery~"

Love politely knocked on the metal roof.

Then, she threw a punch.

"BOOM!!"

Half the roof collapsed.

Amid the smoke and dust, the pink-haired girl slowly descended on specks of light. When she landed, she even carefully lifted her skirt to keep it from getting dirty.

In the warehouse basement, seven or eight people in combat uniforms had been gathered around a map for a late-night meeting. The noise from above sent them reeling. The two people at the front looked up, and their faces changed dramatically the moment they saw who had arrived—

"Pink... It's 'Love'!!"

"Enemy attack—!"

The gunfire lasted only half a second.

Half a second later, every gun had become a pile of parts.

No one saw how she moved.

All they felt was a blur before their eyes and numbness in their wrists. When they looked down, the weapons in their hands had already fallen apart into screws and springs.

"Good evening."

Love clapped her hands and looked at the stunned group with a beaming smile.

"I am Magical Girl Love, the Pure Love Warrior who protects love and all things beautiful."

"To keep it short—you've all been arrested by me."

Ten minutes later.

The eight Liberation Faction members had been tied together in a line and were squatting in the warehouse yard. The confiscated observation equipment, sonic devices, and maps lay scattered across the ground.

Love crouched in front of them, resting her chin in both hands.

"Come on, let's chat." Her tone was light. "What are you planning to do at the concert?"

Eight prisoners, eight tightly shut mouths.

"Not talking?"

Love tilted her head and raised her fist. A soft white light gathered around it.

"If I bring this fist down, it won't be as simple as purifying a Fallen Beast, you know?"

The elderly member at the front raised his head.

Unexpectedly, there was no fear on his face. Instead, he wore a nearly fanatical calm.

"Go ahead," he said. "For the cause of 'liberating one's nature,' what does this little sacrifice matter?"

"You can break our bodies, but can you break what's inside people's hearts?" He stared at Love, speaking each word slowly. "Negative emotions are part of human nature, Magical Girl. You can purify them for a moment, but not for a lifetime. Fear, anger, despair... They're in everyone's hearts. We merely help them open the door."

"You can protect one concert, but can you protect everyone's hearts?"

Love held her fist up and quietly looked at him.

She watched him for three seconds.

Then she lowered her fist.

"Sigh." She let out a breath, stood up, and dusted off her skirt. "As expected, this isn't going to work."

She had already guessed as much.

People who treated crooked logic as their faith were the hardest to interrogate.

As a Pure Love Warrior who spoke with her fists, she was good at fighting, but interrogation... really wasn't her field.

For professional matters, it was better to leave them to professionals.

Love raised her head and looked toward the huge hole in the warehouse roof. Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes and smiled.

The next moment—

Boom.

Vast Magic Power burst from her body without the slightest concealment, flowing out with unrestrained force.

A pillar of pink light tore through the ruined roof and shot into the night sky, illuminating everything for several kilometers around as brightly as day.

"Warning! High-intensity Magic Power detected at the abandoned logistics warehouse in the north of the city!"

In the Association command room, the alarm tore through the silence of the late night.

"The intensity is extremely high! It's 'Love'!" Lin Guo shot up from her chair.

"Direction confirmed! Everyone—"

Old Wei hadn't finished speaking when two streaks of light had already shot into the sky from the Branch.

The Masked Heroine led the way, her black cloak snapping in the night wind.

Knight followed close behind, her silver sword light drawing a sharp arc through the air.

Further back, Ranger and Celestial Star followed tightly behind their seniors, one on each side.

"It's Love!" Ranger shouted excitedly. "She finally came out again!"

"Everyone, combat formation!" The Masked Heroine's voice remained steady. "She wouldn't release enough Magic Power to fill the entire city for no reason."

A few minutes later, the four of them landed in front of the warehouse ruins.

Then they all froze.

There was no expected battle.

There was no expected powerful enemy.

There was only a warehouse with half its roof collapsed, weapons reduced to scattered parts across the ground, eight tightly bound prisoners squatting in a line, and—

A pink-haired girl sitting on a box beside the pile of prisoners, swinging her legs and waving at them.

"Yo." Love greeted them with a grin. "You got here pretty fast."

"This is..." The Masked Heroine's gaze swept over the line of prisoners, the pile of equipment, and the unfolded map. Her eyes sharpened beneath her mask. "The Liberation Faction?"

"Correct!"

Love clapped her hands and looked at the Masked Heroine with a beaming smile.

"Oh~ What a cute senior. So pink."

Ranger poked her head out from behind the Masked Heroine.

Love's expression instantly stiffened.

Damn it, how did I unconsciously do something like that again?!

Knight and the Masked Heroine exchanged a glance.

"So, why did you call us here?"

Love gave them a strange look.

"Isn't it obvious? To have you take them back for interrogation, of course."

"I only know that they plan to make a move at the concert, but I don't know how they plan to do it. After all, interrogation isn't my strong suit."

The concert.

Those three words made everyone's nerves tighten.

"You interrogated them?"

The Masked Heroine asked.

"I did." Love spread her hands. "They were stubborn as hell, each of them acting like a martyr. I'm good at fighting, but I'm really not good at prying open mouths—and that doesn't fit my character setting."

"So I called you over."

"As for using pliers to pull out fingernails or making them sit on the tiger bench, go with whatever you like."

Ranger shuddered.

"How cruel."

Love froze for a moment.

"Don't you interrogate people like that? That's how they always do it on television."

Watching Love say something so outrageous without the slightest self-awareness, Knight's mouth twitched faintly.

She could be certain now: Love's true self was absolutely a somewhat nasty little brat.

When she appeared in a setting filled with pure love, she was like an angel. But when she appeared under ordinary circumstances, she was more like a little devil.

"..."

The Masked Heroine stared at her for two seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"Sure. Leave it to us. Thank you for your help."

"Don't mention it."

Love hopped down from the box and dusted off her skirt.

"Oh, right. A friendly reminder—"

She turned around, her pink starry eyes sweeping over the Masked Heroine, Knight, and Ranger and Celestial Star, who were peeking out from behind them.

"An organization capable of releasing two trained Fallen Beasts under the eyes of the entire city won't have only one hideout."

"The concert is still three weeks away."

"Don't let everyone's love wait in too much anxiety."

With that, she waved at them. Then she lightly tapped the ground with her toes, and her pink figure shot into the sky, merging into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

All that remained in front of the warehouse were the four Magical Girls, staring at one another in silence.